Remembering the Thaksin Years: A cemetery of election canvassers

From Thairath, November 15, 2000
On the box: The general election on 6 January 2001
Caption: The road to democracy… or a cemetery of election canvassers

[Traditionally, Thai elections resulted in the deaths of election canvassers in the provinces. Rural bosses who claimed right to be elected in their area killed canvassers from opponents who dared to campaign in their fiefdoms. This cartoon bemoans the death tolls that were always part of Thai elections.
The 2001 election brought a change to Thai politics with Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai party winning the largest number of seats. His campaigning increasingly broke the power of local power brokers as he appealed directly to the rural voter as opposed to building coalitions of power bosses and their political cliques in parliament.]